


Flower bent toward the Sun

by ChocobosTrinket (Neverforget94)



Series: World of Ruin Side Stories [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Found Family, Implied Character Death, Mistaken Death, No one actually dies., Other, Platonic Relationship, World of Ruin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 02:33:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17820140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverforget94/pseuds/ChocobosTrinket
Summary: Loqi and Aranea have been helping the people of Tenebrae escape the darkness. They do their best, and put themselves last. They should have known that they’d lose each other.





	Flower bent toward the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t written anything in a hot minute and wanted to dust off my writing skills. Why not dabble in the world of ruin series I have going right? I have no beta and don't really edit I realize. I hope there's not too many mistakes.

The emergency sirens were going off, blaring into his ears as he tried to drive back a particularly nasty demon, one that was larger than most of the ones he’d seen. It had been getting to close to the refuges they were trying to evacuate. The red flashing lights were distracting, but they were supposed to be. Sweat dripped down his face as he tried his best to force the controls to do his bidding, but nothing was working. He was losing. With clenched teeth he spat into the microphone something to Aranea, who had begun yelling in his ear. Later, he wouldn’t recall what he said, only that she had let out an enraged snarl over their communicator.

“Loqi! I swear to the six, get the fu-“ 

He didn’t get to hear the end of her shouting, as the demon, which he now recognized as one of the failed experiments, tore into his mech. It knocked out his communication and he let out a frustrated growl as he managed to shove the creature back once more. A feat he was now sure he wouldn’t be able to repeat. One by one his screens were going dark now, and he got one last glance at the refugees behind him. They were all on the ship now. Aranea however, looked like she was about to storm over to his mech and rip him out of it herself. 

He didn’t doubt that she would. 

But he wouldn’t give her that chance. The demon had recovered well enough to press the attack again, and if he didn’t stop it here, while the ship was still low, he knew that it would easily tear it down. So, he stayed inside even when he had only one screen left. As a last-ditch effort, he used the last bit of control he had to grasp onto the demon. It was then that the mech refused to move. He couldn’t allow the demon to get away. 

He squeezed his eyes shut, and everything receded. A moment of peace finding its way into his mind. A deep breath, and then he opened his eyes, allowing the blaring alarm and flashing lights back in. He leaned forward and pulled open a compartment hidden by his right knee. Inside was a series of switches. Normally, he’d have time to arrange his own failsafe’s in the event he’d have to blow apart his mech. But this time he hadn’t had time. 

It was his last mech, and the only one he’d never had a chance to fully prepare for a fight. He couldn’t dwell on the thought though, lest he lose his nerve. One by one he flipped the switches, quickly rather then slowly, worried that the more he tarried the high the chance the demon would shake him off. 

He didn’t even have time to close his eyes when he flipped the last switch, and the mech blew apart. 

~

Loqi’s awareness slowly returned to him, which in itself was a surprise. He could feel his face twitch as he tried to bring himself around further. He regretted it as soon as he did. The pain that hit him made him inhale sharply, and then no more. One of his hands dug into the dirt beneath him, just for something to hold onto. He couldn’t even bring himself to shout or anything. He could only clench his eyes tightly and try to wait out the initial wave. 

When he could finally tolerate it, his breath left him in gasps. He opened his eyes and stared upward at the sky. It was still tinted red from the flames of Tenebrae, and hazy from the darkness that was taking over the world. Along side that, he could see the underside of the floating islands of the region. The blast must have tossed him clear of the land above. It was a miracle he was still breathing after such a fall he thought, plus the explosion. 

With a breath to steel himself, he forced himself to sit up, a strangled groan leaving him as he did. He hunched over, unable to sit up completely straight, and looked at his legs, checking for breaks or open wounds. The effort to move his arm was almost too much, but they too were surprisingly intact. He had no doubt that their state was thanks to his armor. Though, he doubted that his armor was usable after this. Bits were dented in, restricting his movement, and the technology that enabled him to move unhindered by his armor was no longer working. 

With rough movements and great effort, Loqi pried off the metal plates bit by bit, until he was only in his fatigues. He could breath a bit more freely now and allowed himself to flop backwards once more to try and regain some of his strength. The back of the torso, as it turned out, had been dented inward. A result from the fall. 

It was quiet where he was. Peaceful. Around him, he realized, bloomed a patch of blue flowers. He recalled that the Oracle had been fond of them, and wondered how they had grown down here. Outside of the patch of flowers, there was mostly dust and rocks. He thought to himself how odd it was, that he landed in the middle of them.

Next to him lay the discarded pieces of his armor. Broken dented and also in the middle of the flowers. Like a partial reflection of himself. Or the ghost of who he was. He knew the fall and the blast should have killed him. Part of him, if he hadn’t known she had passed on, would have thought that the Oracle had been looking out for him herself. 

But he doubted that she would even if she was still among the living.

With a final sigh he sat up once more, and got to his feet. He looked up once more and got his bearings. The burning manor serving as his orienting point. Then he began walking. Slowly at first, and then more quickly as his muscle got used to moving again. The pain was still present, but some part of him that wanted to survive forced the pain down so he could find safety. Near him, he could see that some of the magitek had also fallen from the other side of the floating isle. It was there that he found one of the magitek assassin’s blades. They would serve until he could a more suitable weapon he figured. Now armed, he walked into the wilderness of Tenebrae, not knowing where he was going to go. He’d have to figure that out. But for now, he could roughly pin point where the nearest town would be. And so that became his goal in the short term. 

Every step felt like he had a stone tied to his legs, as if something was trying to tell him to stay where he was. He snorted at the thought even though he was alone. Staying where he was so someone would find him was childish. No one would come. There was no one left to. Aranea might have, he thought. But she’d be long gone with the people they had saved. Eventually, the further he got, the lighter he felt.   
And soon, his armor was left behind him, the only trace of who he had been left with it. 

~

Aranea cursed to herself. It was almost a full day after the evacuation, the people having been let off to board one of the many boats heading to Lucis. They had asked is she would be coming with them in her airship, but she gave them the excuse of looking for others. They called her a hero for that, something that didn’t sit right with her. 

In truth, she was returning to where she’d last seen… Well, Loqi. The remains of the mech made her chest feel tight. It could almost be called fear if she was someone who got scared. Aside from that, he’d survived other blasts. Of course, her traitorous mind reminded her, he’d had time to evacuate before the mech’s internal mechanism exploded those other times. 

But she could hope, she told herself in response to that thought. Even if she didn’t have very much faith, compared to Biggs and Wedge, she still found it in her to allow a little hope. She searched the island first, the airship hovering above her, out of reach of the small fry demons that were left. And what was left she easily dispatched as she searched. But nothing came of it. There was no trace of him up here.

It was then, just by chance, that she felt a breeze. Normally she’d have ignored it, if not for the blue petal that brushed her cheek. It made her turn her head, her eyes tracking it’s fluttering movements as it went over the edge. Her mind briefly wondered where the petal had come from, considering the fields of the blossoms had been burned. 

But then her mind quickly realized that he could have fallen, something that made her walk over to the edge, and stare down. It was dark, and she could see nothing though. She couldn’t gage the distance to the ground below the floating land. However, Shiva must have smiled at her that day, because for the briefest of moments, a single strand of sunlight managed to break through the darkness, and gleam off some metal below before it was gone just as quick. 

She knew what she had seen, and without wasting anymore time, leaped from the edge. Her armor engaged as she neared the ground, slowing her fall enough so she could land without much issue. And then she began to run over to the area she had seen, turning on the light clipped to her belt, so she could see. It was further than it looked, but that made sense since she’d been looking at it from above. 

And upon reaching it, she closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, as if she could breath out what felt like a hand squeezing her heart. Time slowed when she opened her eyes, and she was forced to accept what she saw. The blue flowers were a surprise, but not as much as the empty armor that lay amidst them. The tattered cloth with the Tummelt house symbol made it clear, without a doubt, to who the armor belonged. 

She walked into the patch of flowers and knelt to pick up the cloth that had once been worn with pride over Loqi’s right shoulder. She clenched it in her left hand tightly, as if she could press the house symbol into her palm. 

“Damn it.” She said to herself quietly. 

Her eyes once again closed, tightly this time, to stop her eyes from watering from the smoke she’d been exposed to. Or so she told herself. She grit her teeth, to stop herself from shouting. A battle she soon lost.

“Damn it. Damn it! DAMN IT!” 

Her right had punched the ground, flowers crumpling, with every curse she said. Eventually, she sat back on her heels and looked up at where he’d fallen from. She could see her ship slowly drifting down toward her now, and behind it was the darkened sky. Then she looked down to where she was, and at the armor. The flowers almost seemed to be holding onto the armor already, though they were wilting now. They’d die without the sun she knew.

With bitterness she put the piece of cloth into the pouch on her belt. To keep with her. She tried not to think of the hair tie with the crow skull on it that was also in there. Something that she kept with her always, to remember a different person. She forced herself to stand, her eyes still on the armor. It wasn’t a bad death, she told herself, and there were worse places to die. 

When Biggs and Wedge returned, then she’d dwell on this. But not now.

She shook her head and then turned away, wishing she had been able to go after him when they’d lost communication. But their priority, they promised each other, was to save as many people as possible. She wished she’d never made the promise, as she leaped back into the air to meet her now descending ship.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Catch me over at chocobostrinket.tumblr.com!


End file.
